


Unlikely Sanctuary

by squishie



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 19th Century, England (Country), Ireland, M/M, larry - Freeform, larry stylinson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-29
Updated: 2013-04-29
Packaged: 2017-12-09 21:21:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/778112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squishie/pseuds/squishie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the one where Louis' running away from home and Harry just so happens to be in his path.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unlikely Sanctuary

**Author's Note:**

> My historical facts probably won't be 100% accurate and I know they won't really be in chronological order, but I try my best!
> 
> Title credits to my friend Rose;
> 
> A gazillion thanks to Rose for editing my chapters for me and making sure my words make sense because they don't always make sense and it's nice and comforting to have somebody make sure that they do, so, thanks :)
> 
> Thanks to joya for, well, being there for me and listening to my whining. Much appreciated. 
> 
> Love you :)

Louis Tomlinson was running.

Louis Tomlinson was running from his hometown, the only town he'd ever known. Louis Tomlinson was running to escape the judgments and the scrutinization from the neighbors and the people from church.

Somehow, they had found out about his secret; the deep, dark secret that he'd kept for himself for as long as he could. A secret that only his mother and his best friend had known about. They were the only two people he had fully trusted. However, now that the secret was out, he knew he had to get away. He would have questions to answer and people to hide from. This secret could be the death of him - literally. He knew he couldn't stay in Doncaster any longer.

That's how Louis Tomlinson had ended up on some dock on the west shore of Wales, looking for a boat heading to Ireland.

He spent most of that afternoon talking to the men working at the docks, picking up as much information as he possibly could on the various boats and ships awaiting to leave the ties of the wharf.

He tried his best to come off simply as a curious passer-by, which worked, because he managed to coax out from the dock workers where each ship in the harbor was heading. When night fell, he took the opportunity to sneak onto the small ship that was heading to Ireland the following morning, and hid himself in the storage area of the ship. He wedged his body and his rucksack between two large crates and let himself fall into a much needed slumber, rocked to sleep by the gentle rolling of the waves beneath the hull of the ship.

 

Louis was woken up the following morning by shouting and yelling on the upper deck above his head as sailors prepared the ship for it's departure. A few moments later, he felt the ship stir beneath him and the quiet sloshing of waves against the hull lulled him back to sleep within minutes. He hadn't had much sleep since he left Doncaster, really.

Louis had lost track of time ever since he'd ran away from home. He didn't care about time anymore; he didn't know how long he had been gone. Time didn't have a purpose in his life anymore. All he knew about time was that it went on and it didn't make much a difference in his life as a fugitive. It didn't really change anything.

The next time he woke up, it was to the sound of men, much closer this time than the last, shouting out orders into the storage room in which Louis was hiding. He could hear loud noises from overhead as sailors and dock workers emptied the ship from its contents, and for a fleeting second, Louis panicked.

Adrenaline pulsed through him as he grabbed his rucksack and slung it over his shoulder, crouching down as he tried to avoid the men in the same room as him. Apparently, years of sneaking around town at nighttime with his best mate Stan had paid off; they had given Louis just enough knowledge on how to sneak around unnoticed, and he managed to get off the boat and away from the docks without being seen - or caught, at least.

This time he didn't bother running. He took his time and walked on the side of trails and roads to find a place to work. He didn't have anybody to hide from in Ireland. Nobody knew him - or his secrets - here.

-o-

"You're hired."

Louis was thrilled at the sound of those two words that he had been waiting to hear for the past few days. He had been in Ireland for a couple of days now, walking around and trying to find a job to help him settle down. He mostly stopped at farms, a field of work in which he had some experience from his uncle's farm back home. He shook his new boss's hand, thanking him with a broad smile and followed him towards the barn. "When can you start?"

"I can start anytime, sir." Louis spoke confidently as he adjusted his rucksack on his back. "I haven't got anywhere to stay, sir. Doesn't matter what times you'll make me work; I'll take anything. I just need some money. I'll work anything you make me do."

The man pursed his lips as he studied Louis' face intently. "Not from here, are ya?" he asked with a jerk of his chin, to which Louis shook his head. "What brought you up here? Y'sound like you're from England or something." the man asked with a frown as he chewed on a piece of hay.

"I am. I-" Louis paused, thinking of the reason why he was here. Should he tell the man that he ran away? Oh, screw it, he thought. "I ran away. Couldn't stay in my town. Had to get out" he settled vaguely, casting his eyes downwards. He wouldn't say the whole truth. That would get him in trouble. He couldn't afford getting in trouble again.

"Understandable. Alright, c'mon. My son's in the barn already, he'll show you 'round. You can start working today, yeah?" The man proposed, leading Louis into the barn. Louis nodded.

They walked past stalls holding horses and cows, and the man led Louis around a corner and down a dusty hallway. At the end of it was a metal ladder bolted to the wall with the last few bars at the top passing through a hole in the ceiling, probably leading to an attic, and the man immediately started climbing it.

"Leave your stuff down here and follow me" he called down to Louis before disappearing in the attic. Louis immediately obeyed and dropped his sack to the ground before he climbed the ladder all the way to the top, stepping off it onto the creaky floorboards of the barn when he reached the top.

He was stunned at the sight in front of him. The attic he was expecting definitely wasn't an attic; it was like a whole other barn. The ceiling was the highest Louis had ever seen, and he wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed this when he looked at the farm from outside.There were hundreds - maybe thousands - of bales of hay stacked like a staircase several stories high, filling up about half of the attic on his left hand side. The place didn't even look like an attic - it seemed more like a warehouse.

Louis now realized - after looking around - that the farm was built on a hill. There were two large sliding doors on the far right side of the barn with a gravel path that divided into two smaller ones; one leading further up the hill to some fields, where he presumed the cows and other barn animals were brought out when it was nice outside, and the other leading down the hill towards the other side of the farm, probably going around it and stopping at the main doors.

Looking around with a closer look, Louis also noticed his new boss shouting up to what seemed like a younger version of Mr Horan standing on top of the mountain of hay. The boy - who seemed around Louis' age - was working hard at unstacking some bales of hay from the top of the mountain and throwing them at his father and Louis' level.

"Come down here Niall, need you to meet someone" the man shouted as the boy threw one last bale before skillfully hopping down the stacks. Louis wondered vaguely how he managed not to get his feet through one of the spaces between the bales and fall to his death, but the thought soon evaporated as the boy stopped a few feet from Louis and his father.

The boy had blonde hair tucked under a worn out flat cap, dirt smudge along his cheeks and the lines of his face and a wide smile that could win even the darkest of hearts over. He was wearing a white button up shirt - that shouldn't really be considered white, seeing it's brownish shade - and tan trousers held up by a pair of braces. His eyes were sky blue and Louis couldn't help but smile at the beaming boy; he seemed so genuine and happy that it was hard not to.

"Louis, this is my son Niall. Niall, this is Louis. I just hired him to help out with the farm. Show him 'round the farm, will ya? I've got some stuff to take care of back at the house." Mr Horan said, giving Niall a knowing look before walking back towards the ladder with a limp that Louis hadn't noticed before. He disappeared in the hole created for the ladder and Niall sighed.

"Hey mate. Glad my dad finally got me some help, it was getting kind of tough working here all alone" he grinned, extending his hand. Louis smiled and shook his hand firmly.

"You mean we're the only two workers here?"

Niall nodded, gesturing vaguely to the ladder where his father had disappeared. "Yeah, it used to be my old man and my cousins and uncles and I, but all our family either moved away or passed away during the last year," He said with a shrug. "Because of the crappy potato crops and all that." He added after seeing Louis' confused look.

"You're having problems with the crops?"

"Yeah. The whole country of Ireland has been having problems in the past few seasons. This year's been horrible though, nearly everybody's trying to move away before their families die of hunger." He explained, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his trousers. "Me parents shipped my younger brothers and sisters of to some distant relatives in England last summer so they wouldn't die here. We couldn't feed them. I only stayed because I'm the oldest, so I had to stay and help my dad with the farm"

Louis nodded sympathetically and was about to ask another question when Niall sighed loudly and dusted off his trousers. "Anyway, now's not the time to talk about this. Father's going to have a piss at me if I don't show you 'round and finish taking out the hay for the cows so we'll catch up later, alright?"

Louis simply nodded and let Niall lead him around the warehouse.

"So this here is where we store the hay and the feed for the animals. There's a shoot over there in the corner that lands on the lower floor, where the animals are, so that's where you'll throw the hay bales and the feed sacks when we tell you to chuck some down." He explained, motioning to another hole in the ground. "Just be careful not to fall in there; it happened to me back when I was a kid. Had to stay at home resting up for weeks because of a broken leg!" He warned with a smirk, making Louis laugh nervously.

"Is it hard not to fall in?" He grimaced and Niall let out a booming laugh that echoed throughout the warehouse. "Nah, as long as you have some good enough balance and you're not around cousins that'll push you in, you're fine!"

(to be continued)


End file.
